A rather small, predominantly red Nomada with yellow spots on the gastral tergites.

This Nomada is one of those with a gaster which is red-brown with yellow spots. It is not often found, but may be sought wherever its host Andrena humilis Imhoff is present. It has been the subject of a lot of name changes in recent years, the current name being now generally accepted as the correctly applied one.

This cuckoo bee is easily confused in the field with its close relative Nomada fulvicornis Fabricius (see remarks under that species).

One of the larger and more frequently encountered Nomada species. Females are rather smaller and browner than those of its frequent associate Nomada flava Panzer. Females of these two species can be reliably told apart by the erect black hairs on the clypeus of N. panzeri (these are pale in N. flava); but males of these two species are extremely difficult to separate with any degree of confidence.

With a body length of 4–6 mm this is the smallest of the Nomada species found in the British Isles. The female is unusual in that the gastral tergites are devoid of yellow lateral markings of any kind. In Britain the species is unique in being entirely a cleptoparasite of small Lasioglossum species.

One of the smaller and less frequently encountered Nomada species. Its unusual pattern of creamy-yellow spots on a cherry-red background is distinctive, as is its habit of flying rapidly over the surface of loose sand in July and August. Females can be picked out from the mêlée as they occasionally land, stroke the sand with their antennae and start digging. This activity signals them having found the nest-tracer scent of their host bee Andrena argentata Smith.

A bright brown and yellow cuckoo bee and one of the larger of our Nomada species. In common with its hosts (Andrena of the varians group as well as A. scotica Perkins and A. nitida (Müller)) this is a very widespread and frequently found species, often seen flying over short vegetation and bare ground in sunny places during the spring. Towards the north it appears to be replaced by N. panzeri Lepeletier. Separating males, in particular, of these two species is very difficult, but good characters concerning the standing hairs on the… Read more

This is one of the smallest species of Nomada and is widely distributed throughout Britain. A very common bee, although, owing to its very small size, it is easily overlooked.

One of the larger-sized, summer-flying Nomada which is marked just in black and yellow, with conspicuous yellow markings on the tegulae and the scutellum. It is one of a small group of Nomada which appear to be virtually hairless (there are very short hairs, but a microscope or hand-lens is needed to appreciate these). In the field the insect often appears to be matt, not shiny. Intriguingly it may sometimes be found where its putative hosts (bees of the genus Melitta) have not been recorded. However, it is not usually abundant wherever it is found.

Both Nomada fulvicornis and N. marshamella (Kirby) greatly resemble one another in the field, particularly males. However, the females of N. fulvicornis generally have obvious reddish markings on the more basal sternites and similar ones are often (though much reduced) present on some of the tergites. In the males there are no inner orbital yellow or orange bands in N. marshamella; these are present in N. fulvicornis but are frequently reduced to a few small spots. N. fulvicornis has two distinct subspecies in Britain, these expressing… Read more